Lawmakers gavel in for the 2018 legislative session Monday, January 8 in Des Moines at the statehouse. After several controversial bills made it through in 2017, Republicans remain in control of both chambers and the governor's office. What are their plans for the 2018 session?
Iowans should keep an eye on the statehouse with regard to tax reform, according to Radio Iowa's News Director Kay Henderson.
"I would say that Republicans feel pressure now to act on this based on what happened in December in Congress," says Henderson. "One of the arguments that Republicans and even Democrats have been making over the past decade is that that the crazy is at the federal level, and here in Iowa, we get things done. Now that they've gotten it done in Washington with regard to tax reform, there is intense pressure within the Republican caucuses in both the House and the Senate to enact some major tax reform."
During this politics day edition of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Henderson, Joyce Russell, Iowa Public Radio's statehouse correspondent, and Chris Larimer, associate professor of political science at the University of Northern Iowa.
Other issues discussed during this hour include the state's budget woes, and a $13 million transfer of funds made by Governor Reynolds to balance the state budget in 2017, collective bargaining, mental health care reform, and Medicaid privatization.
